Accused of breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s home, stealing his credit cards and piling up roughly $9,000 in credit card charges, a Gillette woman faces up to 30 years in prison.
Amber Rae, who is 48 this year, is charged with four felonies: theft, burglary, methamphetamine possession and marijuana possession. The first two offenses are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, while the second two carry up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
She’s scheduled to give her plea in Campbell County District Court on Wednesday.
Christopher Sheppard of Gillette reported just before midnight June 21 that someone had just burglarized his home, according to the evidentiary affidavit in his case.
The responding officer spoke with Sheppard’s girlfriend, who said she woke that night to find a woman moving along the bedroom wall with a flashlight.
“Hey!” yelled Sheppard’s girlfriend, and the intruder snapped off her flashlight and ran out the side door, the affidavit relates.
All lights in the house were off except a light over the kitchen stove.
Sheppard’s girlfriend recognized the woman as Amber Rae, she told police, because she’d met Rae one week prior when Rae allegedly showed up to the residence unannounced. The address is redacted in the affidavit.
Sheppard told police he and Rae had dated five years prior, and that she never returned his house key when they broke up.
Let’s Inventory
Sheppard’s girlfriend reported to police that her $1,000 laptop was gone. An iPhone 12 pro (worth $1,000) and Apple Airpods ($100) were also gone.
Sheppard reported his brown Ariat wallet was gone, containing his driver’s license and Campco debit card and Discover credit card.
His laptop charging cord, indoor security camera and laptop also were gone, the affidavit says.
A Few, Actually
Earlier that day at about 4 p.m. Sheppard had called law enforcement to report a break-in from about a week earlier. That was when his laptop and two other credit cards vanished, he’d reported. One card was a Discover card and the other was an American Express. The laptop was worth about $1,000, says the affidavit.
Someone broke in June 17 and took his checkbook, Sheppard said.
He woke June 21 to an email from Campco Federal Credit Union showing scanned copies of three of his own checks, signed and cashed. Sheppard told police the signatures on the checks weren’t his.
One check cashed for $600, another for $1,500 June 20. Another check cashed June 17 for $1,600.
Also by June 21, there were between $8,000 and $9,000 in unauthorized charges to Sheppard’s credit card, the affidavit alleges.
Truck Tabs Current
Forrest Rothleutner, an officer with the Gillette Police Department, went to Rae’s last known address at a Gillette apartment complex.
The affidavit says the apartment manager confirmed that Rae lived there, and that the 2005 GMC truck parked outside was hers.
Her truck plate had expired, but it had current registration tabs, which police discovered belonged to someone else who lived in the apartment complex.
Police spoke with the neighbors, who said they didn’t give license tabs to Rae and believed she took them from their vehicle, the document says.
Leaves And Crystals
Officers obtained a search warrant for Rae’s apartment and truck.
In her bedroom, police allegedly found a needle containing 0.6 grams of a substance that later tested positive for methamphetamine. They found “several containers” of a green leafy substance totaling about 80 grams that tested positive for marijuana, the affidavit claims.
There also were “several other containers” of about 1.5 grams of a crystalline substance that tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.
The search also revealed Sheppard’s wallet, driver’s license, debit card, a membership card and a Capital One credit card in his name. Plus, police found a Discover credit card next to the bed bearing Sheppard’s name. This card, the affidavit claims, was the one with more than $8,000 in recent unauthorized charges.
Police found the blank Campco checks also, the document says.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
